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What can I say, other than it’s good to be home! We spent our last days in the UK on a farewell tour which took us to London then further North to Lancashire. Needless to say there was food, drink, hair dying sessions and tears shed (not because of the hair dying I hasten to add). Anyway beetroot red is making a come back, I’m starting the trend in Turkey! We and crew of Moli arrived back on the 11th March (the day before my big you know what, can’t even bring myself to say it). Glad to say Stella and her chum Moli were still afloat and happy to see us return. The next day, the day of the big you know what, there was rain and storms not at all what the birthday girl had ordered. Thought I’d woken up in Blighty by mistake. I slipped into my naughty forties with relative ease, there was a moment of denial, a soup-son of regret (that’ll be the hair), followed by hope and finally acceptance as the glass of fizzy was placed in my hand on Moli! I was the first to retire to bed that night (that’ll be my age) when your finding the rules of the ‘post it on the head’ game difficult it’s time to say Bon nuit! It’s not taken long for us to get back in the swing of marina life. After a short adjustment period (me getting over the birthday celebrations) we’ve knuckled down to some serious boat maintenance (well she deserves a bit of TLC). Once again we’ve taken up the sole (that’s the floor to you landlubbers) my varnishing exploits from last Winter require some more attention. I’ve also made start on the companion way steps and the galley. If it’s nailed down I’ll varnish it. That ‘varnish badge’ will be mine I tell you (you can see the varnish fumes have kicked in). The Captain has been keeping himself very busy replacing taps in the galley, cleaning Stella’s hull and Dave the dinghy, fitting a new battery (might get a cold beer on Stella this Summer). All whilst keeping up to date on the celebrity gossip in OK magazine, is there no end to this mans talents! Don’t worry it’s not all work and no play for ‘Team Stella’, we’ve met up once again with pals in the marina and had some jolly good fun. Unfortunately the nature of what we are doing means that the joy of meeting up is at some point followed by the hardship (get it hard-ship) of saying Au revoir. New Zealand chums (Pete & Raewin) on ‘Saliander’ had a farewell dinner on their boat (which by the way is to die for) what a fab dab night that was. They really are the loveliest couple, Raewin was our Pilates instructor so as well as saying goodbye to a chum, my ‘powerhouse’ had to say goodbye to any hope of maintaining its powerhouseness!! All is not lost Pilates has been replaced by Body Balance (involves tai chi, yoga, pilates and an instructor that says ‘orsome’ a lot). Watch this space for a new super toned balanced body coming your way. Another good night/early morning was spent with Paul and Jude on ‘Seventh Heaven’. Good food, conversation and wine, which was followed by more conversation and you’ve guessed it more wine! A farewell outing for them followed a very similar pattern. Well you’ve got to give them a good send off! We’ve had a couple of BBQ’s in the marina and been on a walk that involved us clambering down some rocks only to find we couldn’t get all the way down. So when you can’t get down the only thing to do is clamber all the way back up again! On the way back we stopped off at the local gym down by the beach look at the pics if you don’t believe me. What a work out that was! Well I think that’s all for now, hope you tune in for the next instalment ‘Lift out day’. You know already it will be a hum dinger! Take care of yourselves you ickle lickle land fairies Love & no more grey hairs (just bright red ones) The Captain and the beetroot head XX
Tuesday, 18 March 2008